The son of legendary singer Sinn Sisamouth on Friday said the Commerce Ministry would award him the exclusive rights to a number of his father’s songs next week, and appealed to the public to send him more recordings so that he could secure ownership of them.
“His Excellency [Commerce Minister] Sun Chanthol called me and told me that there will be an announcement ceremony next week at the ministry, said Sinn Chanchhaya, 58, who is also the president of the Sinn Sisamouth Association, which works to promote and protect the work of the prolific crooner, who was killed during the Khmer Rouge regime.
“I want the rights because I want to follow my late father’s instructions,” Mr. Chanchhaya said. “He said before he died that he wanted his songs to be able to support our family’s standard of living.
In September, the Commerce Ministry announced that Mr. Chanchhaya—who has found himself at the center of the Commerce Ministry’s push for stronger implementation of intellectual property rights—had applied for the rights to 73 of his father’s songs and that his request had been sent to Prime Minister Hun Sen for approval.
Chim Sokheng, acting director of the Commerce Ministry’s department of intellectual property rights, confirmed that Mr. Chanchhaya would be formally granted rights to some of his father’s songs in a ceremony Wednesday evening presided over by the commerce minister.
